Clothespin



A. E. GORNY CLOTHESPIN May 23, 1950 Filed Aug. 50, 1946 mmvrox. 602172 Patented May 23, 1950 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CLOTHESPIN Alvina E. Gorny, Chicago, Ill.

Application August 30, 1946, Serial No. 694,002

3 Claims. (Cl. 24-137) This invention relates to improvements in clothes pins and has for its general object to provide a cheap, durable, efiicient and very compact structure of this type which possesses appreciable advantages over all prior art devices of the same class known to me.

. A specific object of the invention is to provide a resilient metal clothes pin which is equipped between its ends with a space adapted to receive a rope or a wire cable or wire from which clothes are customarily suspended, and with means spaced from said rope, cable or wire receiving means for yieldingly engaging the wearing apparel, sheets, towels and the like, to

be suspended from but maintained out of contact with the said rope or other support.

A further particular object of the invention is to provide the rope, cable or wire receiving space of such shape as to engage the support sufficiently firmly to prevent the clothes pin from sliding along the same, and wherein the weight of the articles suspended from the clothes pin cooperates with the walls of said space to produce that result.

Another object of the invention is to provide a clothes pin which is engageable easily with and is equally easily disengagea-ble from the supporting strand and from the suspended articles engaged therewith.

Suitable embodiments of the invention are illustrated in the accompanying drawings wherein:

Fig. 1 is a view in elevation showing a supporting strand, such as a rope, from which a fabric sheet, such as a towel, is suspended by means of clothes pins constructed in accordance with this invention.

Fig. 2 is a perspective view showing the two parts of the clothes pin and a rivet for joining the same preparatory to effecting assembly of the structure.

Fig.3 is a central longitudinal sectional view of the completed clothes pin.

Fig. 4 is a cross sectional view, on an enlarged scale, taken through one of the members of the clothes pin.

Fig. 5 is a view similar of Fig. 3 showing a modified form of construction.

Fig. 6 is a view similar to Fig. 3 showing the clothes pin engaged with a fabric sheet hung over a supporting cord of any type that may be used the rope or the tube shown in Fig. 1 being omitted.

The said clothes pin is composed of two sheet metal members I that are exactly alike except as one hand of the user in order to speed up clothes hanging operations to the greatest possible degree.

Each member I includes an inverted L-shaped upper end portion which includes the flange 2 and a shank portion 3, the said shank portions being equipped with registering perforations 4 for the passage of the single rivet 5 which joins said shank portions 4 at a point spaced far enough from the flanges 3 to permit the operation of forming the respective male and female interengaged formations 6 between said rivet 5 and said flanges 2, which serve to prevent relative rotation of said members I about the axis of said rivet 5.

Next below the said shank portions 4, the members I are shaped to provide the substantially diamond-shaped space I of appreciable length, the greatestnormal width of said space 1 being about equal to or slightly less than the diameter of the cables commonly used for clothes hanging purposes, and which is of less maximum normal width than the diameter of rope commonly used. Obviously, because this space I is closely proximate to the rivet 5 at its upper end, the flexing of these portions of the members I is resisted to a very high degree and, because the angle of divergence of the upper wall portions of said space I is small, the weight of the load suspended from the clothes pins, as shown in Fig. 1, will cause a high degree of frictional resistance to travel of the clothes pins along cable or wire (sometimes used) engaged in the said space 1.

The spacing of the widest portion of space I from the junctions of the shanks twith the shanks 6 is about one and one-half times the greatest width of said space 1.

The pressure exerted upon rope of diameter greater than the maximum width of said space 1 will be subjected to enough pressure by said walls of said space to flatten the same and thus prevent any travel of the clothes pins along the same.

Below the portions of the shanks of the members l which form the walls of the space 1, said shanks are corrugated to form a. plurality of substantially elliptical spaces 8, two or which are preferable to a greater or smaller number, as shown, and below the outermost end of which said shanks are maintained normally in strong yielding contact with each other. The terminal flanges 9 of the members I are divergent, as shown, and their extremities disposed sumciently spaced apart to receive the largest diameter supporting strand, such as a rope, of substantially conventional size commonly used.

In suspending such articles as rugs, heavy draperies and the like, as shown in Fig. 1, the clothes pins are, of course, first mounted upon'the supporting strand and the articles to besuspended from them are then inserted into place.

has exemplified in Fig. 4.

-The structure of Fig. 5 is intended for use only npo'nclothes lines of larger than ordinary diam- Obviously, as shown in Fig. 6, the" fabric may be first disposed over the supporting strand and the clothes pins, of which a very appreciable number may be held in one hand' oi the user, then applied successively by engaging the shanks thereof between the thumb and first finger with index fingerbearing upon thehead flanges 2 and forced downwardly overthe supporting strand and fabric suspended therefrom to any desired extent for engagement theoppo'sed hollows of any selected pair of corrugations;

In the event that thetotal thickness of the load suspended from the clothes pins is enough to effect an appreciable expansion of the portion of thelatter between which the load is engaged,

the said space 1 will be increased slightly in width, but experience has demonstratedthat this expansion is unimportantbecause any disadvantage incident thereto is overcome by increasing the number of clothespins used to support such a heavy load.

Itwill be observed that'the corrugation of the shanks'of themember l-are arcuate and that opposed convex surface portions thereof are alternated with opposed concave surface portions to form the said spaces -8 and that the only pointat which said convex surf-ace portions meet is at the junctions of the lowest thereof with the flanges s, the next inward pair of opposed convex surface portions being spaced slightly from each other, and the next inward pair thereof spaced slightly farther apart, this being important in that if the'article-to-be engaged between said corrugateds'hank portions is-fairly thick, twoor all three of the opposed convex surface portions of said shanks-will engage the same if the user of the clothes pins'inserts'the 'edge portion of said article to project, in part, into the lower end portion of the-space 1'.

' Theuppermost opposed convex surfaces of the corrugations are spaced apart normally farther than the next-lower'opposed convex portions'and form the open mouth of t-hersupporting strand rec'eiving space.

The greatest pinch pressure on fabric-of such The opposed convex portions of corrugationsof said shanks or legs lie substantially tangential to planes extending diver-gently from the meeting line ofsame into the first-named space, the

angle of divergence ofsaidplanes being decreased progressively until they become parallel or oppositely divergent, depending-upon the thickness of the interposed fabric.

eter used for suspending rugs or the like which are neverliun'g over the lines to dry, but require the fullspring strength of the structure to carry the load and, therefore, must not be partially expaindedinthe space la of the structure of Fig. 5 wherein said space is substantially semi-cylindricalat top ans preferably of enough smaller radiu's'thanthe-heavier rope used so as to engageth'e -sarne firmly enough to prevent the aforesaid travei of the clothes: pins along the same.

The clothes pins may also-*be nsed' to suspend clothes from the lower-Hoar oi a garment hanger over the top'ot which a-coat or blou'se'is hung, substantially as shown in Fig. 1.

Iclairn as -rny invention:

1 A clothes-pin composed of -twin resilient sheet metal membershaving straight upper shank portionr igidly gioined againstmovement relative to each other: terminating in outwardly pro-' j'ecting flanges andconstituting. .aksubstantially in frexible' T sha'pedhead portion terminating: at

its lower end in" a pair of opposed-shanks extendin'gfirst divergently to a predetermined intersectin'g horizontal plane spaced from said head and convergently from-said plane toe meeting point below 'sa'idplane and terminating in flaredflanges.

2. l t-structure, according: to'claim 1, wherein the divergent-portions ofthe-shanks next below the T-shaped head portion are of length approximately equal to about one and enewal-i times the maximum width dfi-the aopen space :bordere'd in part thereby:

3.- A resilient sheet metalclothes-pin comprised of twin members each terminating-at one end in an L 's'hap'ed forination nigidly secured to that of the other and providing a substantially l -shaped: head portion of the structure, the remaining shank pcir-tiorrs'--of said members' -div-ergent from their upper ends an'd convergent therebelow-to a" meeting-point; the said convergent portions being equippeu withcorrugations next aidiacent'and to' said meeting point, the last of -said-corrugations terminating i-n'd-ivergent flanges:- V

. GORNY.

REFERENCES CITED The following referermes are of record iii-the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 31,845,268 Harvey 16,1932

2,22%6021 Gillett ,N0v. 5, 15940 FGHEIGN FATENT'S" Number Country .Diate Great Britain of I86? 

